You get my 2 cents' worth … and a lefty's view of ball and other (less important) matters.

Results tagged ‘ yankees ’

I keep hearing more and more about an Adrian Gonzalez move. Momentum — and the East Coast drumbeat — keeps building for a trade. The feeling around Boston is that the Red Sox absolutely have to bag him, as a year-after counterpunch to losing out to the Yankees on Mark Teixeira.

If the Sox do land Gonzalez, it of course will have been an inside job. The mole being Jed Hoyer, the former Theo Epstein aide who recently took over as the Padres general manager.

In all seriousness: Hoyer’s involvement will actually make a San Diego-Boston swap harder to pull off.

Why? Because the specifics would have to be cynics-proof. Weighted even more in the Padres’ favor than under normal circumstances. Anything less, and suspicious Friars fans will raise a stink specifically about the Hoyer-Red Sox connection. …

My feeling is the Red Sox need to be more concerned with keeping up with the Yankees rotation. Roy Halladay should be atop Epstein’s list, even if Doc didn’t have a personal 18-6 record against the Bombers. …

If Hideki Matsui is the loser in his private game of musical chairs with Johnny Damon — the Yankees will bring back only one of them — the popular expectation is that the Mariners would emerge as his logical landing place. It makes sense — the M’s history with Japanese players, Japanese majority ownership — but ignores one factor: Ichiro and Matsui aren’t extremely fond of each other, and may not co-exist. …

This was a headline part of preseason outlooks, but hasn’t been revisited after-the-fact: No team with a starting shortstop 35-or-older had ever won the World Series — until Derek Jeter’s Yankees pushed that envelope. …

That seventh inning last night? Baseball’s version of bungee jumping off the Empire State Building. . ..

After last night’s Game 5 of the ALCS, I am convinced it IS easier to play in these games than it is to watch them.

I mean, these were nine innings of torture that put fans’ nerves in a vise. The emotional investment was way beyond even a federal bailout. Especially during a brutal ninth when Brian Fuentes repeatedly poked the fork into the outlet.

We’re dying out here. And what is the guy in the middle of it all thinking?

“It’s not like my life flashes before my eyes,” Fuentes said after the game, “and I’m thinking, ‘This is the ultimate moment.'”

You mean, there’s more? Oh, God. …

Not saying this baseball postseason is too long — can’t have too much baseball — but talk about clash of the seasons: A World Series Game 7 would come during Week 11 of the college football season. …

How’s this for potential bookends for Baseball 2009? Say the Yankees keep their World Series date with the Phillies. Say that Series goes the distance. Say both teams adjust their rotations so lefty aces CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee face off in such a Game 7 in Yankee Stadium.

The point? Lee, then with the Indians, and Sabathia faced each other in the very first New Yankee Stadium opener on April 16 (Lee and Cleveland were 10-2 winners). …

Vengeance continues as the dominant theme of this postseason. And no one is entitled to more of it than are the Yankees, who for a decade had been dissed by the Angels. …

It’s tough not to root for Brad Lidge, whatever your team allegiance. The guy is extremely down-to-earth, level-headed and unassuming. And the list of pitchers who would have been terminally eaten up by what he underwent during the regular season is longer than Bernie Madoff’s IOU list. Yet here’s Lidge, flipping the switch in October …

Congrats to Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke for winning the 2009 NL and AL Cy Young Awards. No, those haven’t yet been officially awarded. But they received comparable honors from The Sporting News, baseball’s version of Hollywood’s Golden Globes. Whoever gets those in January usually gets the Oscars in March. …

Incidentally, for a rare insight into what makes Greinke tick, be sure to check out his cool sit-down with MLB.com’s Dick Kaegel. …

You already knew that Bengie Molina couldn’t run. But did you also know he can’t walk, either? This season, the free-agent catcher had 10 unintentional walks in 520 plate appearances. …

The next time the conversation turns to unbreakable records, inject Bobby Cox’s 150 ejections. The Braves manager has been tossed from more games than a scuffed-up baseball. …

Umpire Tim McClelland had to feel “in my heart” that Nick Swisher had left the bag too soon. Because he couldn’t see it in his eyes, since they were focused on center fielder Torii Hunter. …

But know what? If Joe Girardi could feel in his heart that Alfredo Aceves better matched up with Howie Kendrick and Jeff Mathis than did David Robinson, then McClelland is entitled to his own gut feelings. …

OK – when did big-league ball turn into the NBA? All these walk-offs … nowadays, you can get there in the top of the ninth and not miss a thing. …

Alex Rodriguez: Heaven knows people have already taken great liberties with his nickname, so how about another to reflect the lineup protection he has given awakening Mark Teixeira? The A-Rodfather. …

Pudge fudge: So Ivan Rodriguez clocked career homer No. 300 on Sunday, May 17? Maybe. Come July 9, the Astros will conclude the game with the Nationals that was suspended in the 11th inning on May 5.

And here’s the kicker, as reminded by the vigilant Bill Chuck — statistics from the completion of that game will still be dated May 5, meaning that as far as the historical record goes, Pudge could wind up hitting No. 300 months after No. 301, and so on. …

Paul DePodesta: The former Oakland assistant GM will be portrayed by a comedian (Demetri Martin) in the upcoming film treatment of “Moneyball.” Those who recall DePodesta’s turn as Dodgers GM consider that perfect casting. …

“Industry”: Hate that reference to baseball. Cringe every time it violates my ears. Webster defines it as “economic activity concerned with the processing of raw materials and manufacture of goods in factories.” Some players arrive raw, I can see that. But where are the factories? Knock it off. …

Yankee Stadium: In explaining the policy of making the Legends Suite area off-limits to batting practice watchers, club COO Lonn Trost mounted an appropriate defense.

Said Trost, “If you purchase a suite, do you want somebody in your suite? If you purchase a home, do you want somebody in your home?”

No and no. Besides, they cost about the same. The median price of a single-family house in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2009 was $169,000 — which breaks down to $2,086 per of the 81-game home schedule, a good approximation of the discounted price of the $2,620 seats. …

Barack Obama: Let’s hope he remains a White Sox fan and doesn’t switch his allegiance to the Nationals, else he might pass a federal law reducing the length of an official game to six innings.

If games ended after six, the 11-25 Nats would be 19-17 and in the thick of the NL East race. Someone bolt the doors to that bullpen. …

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